The 1986 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on 25 May 1986. It was the fifth race of the 1986 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race was the 44th Belgian Grand Prix and the 32nd to be held at Spa-Francorchamps. It was held over 43 laps of the circuit for a total race distance of .
The race was won by British driver Nigel Mansell, driving a Williams-Honda. It was Mansell's first victory of the season. Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna finished second in a Lotus-Renault, with Sweden's Stefan Johansson third in a Ferrari. Senna's result allowed him to take the lead of the Drivers' Championship from Frenchman Alain Prost, who could only manage sixth in his McLaren-TAG.
Qualifying Brabham entered only one BT55, the car of Riccardo Patrese. Elio de Angelis had been killed in a testing accident at Circuit Paul Ricard just over a week before the race. Williams-Honda driver Nelson Piquet took pole late in the qualifying session using the team's spare car. Piquet's engine blew up in his race car during qualifying forcing him into the spare. Austrian Gerhard Berger scored his first front row start and the first for the BMW powered Benetton after being fastest in Friday qualifying. His Friday time of 1:54.468 was half a second faster than his Saturday time but still good enough for the front row. World Champion Alain Prost was third in his McLaren-TAG with the Lotus-Renault of Ayrton Senna completing the second row. Nigel Mansell qualified fifth in his Williams-Honda with Teo Fabi completing the top 6 in his Benetton-BMW.
Race Piquet won the start and led the field into the La Source hairpin but behind him was chaos. Senna had made a good start from the 2nd row and when Berger's car twitched under brakes Senna went to the outside and then turned hard into the right hand corner. In doing so he squeezed out Berger who in turn squeezed out Prost while avoiding Senna. Prost, who had gone inside when the Benetton twitched, hit the inside barrier damaging the nose of his car with the right front wing drooping on the ground. He then drove over Berger's wheel launching the rear of his McLaren into the air. Other drivers were forced to take avoiding action with Berger's teammate Fabi having to stop to avoid hitting his teammates damaged car while Prost's teammate Keke Rosberg had to do a complete 180 degree turn the wrong way to avoid the Benettons. However, the only car that retired from the crash was the Lola-Ford of Patrick Tambay who went inside the stopped Fabi but hit his right rear with his left front wheel and damaged the left front suspension putting him out on the spot. Through it all Senna emerged unscathed in 2nd place followed by Mansell and the two Ferraris of Stefan Johansson and Michele Alboreto.
Both Berger and Prost pitted at the end of lap 1 with Berger in for a long stop for repairs and Prost for a new nose cone, his rear suspension survived intact despite its unscheduled first corner flight. Mansell disposed of Senna on lap 2, but spun on lap 5, falling back to 4th place. Piquet led until suffering turbo failure on lap 16, leaving Senna in front, ahead of Mansell, who shortly overtook Senna during pit stops. Prost emerged last on the road and only a few hundred metres in front of the leading Williams, on his way to being the last car on the lead lap and finishing in sixth place. He set a new lap record of 1:59.282 on lap 31.
Nigel Mansell scored his first win of 1986 and the third win of his career. Senna, the cause of the first corner crash, finished 20 seconds behind in second, with Stefan Johansson finishing third after passing team leader Alboreto only two laps from home. Jacques Laffite finished fifth in his Ligier-Renault with Prost gaining a vital World Championship point for finishing sixth. Swiss driver Marc Surer finished ninth in his Arrows A8 in what would be the last Grand Prix of Surer's career – he would be seriously injured competing in the European Rally Championship a week later. Post race, Mansell dedicated his win to his friend and former team mate Elio de Angelis, who died just ten days prior to Spa in a testing accident at Paul Ricard.
Classification
Qualifying Pos No Driver Constructor Q1 Q2 Gap 1 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 1:54.637 1:54.331 — 2 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 1:54.468 1:54.939 +0.137 3 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 1:55.039 1:54.501 +0.170 4 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 1:55.776 1:54.576 +0.245 5 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 1:55.345 1:54.582 +0.251 6 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 1:57.440 1:54.765 +0.434 7 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 1:57.269 1:55.576 +1.245 8 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 1:56.534 1:55.662 +1.331 9 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 1:56.294 1:56.242 +1.911 10 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 1:58.574 1:56.309 +1.978 11 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 1:57.697 1:56.496 +2.165 12 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 1:57.797 1:56.537 +2.206 13 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 1:58.619 1:57.462 +3.131 14 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 1:57.918 1:57.612 +3.281 15 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 2:00.357 1:57.612 +3.281 16 15 Alan Jones Lola-Ford 1:59.180 1:57.815 +3.484 17 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 1:58.238 2:27.817 +3.907 18 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 1:59.347 1:58.603 +4.272 19 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 2:00.984 1:59.960 +5.629 20 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 2:02.307 2:00.148 +5.817 21 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 2:01.320 2:01.415 +4.661 22 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 2:01.528 2:01.354 +7.023 23 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 2:06.006 2:03.842 +9.511 24 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 2:05.092 3:38.767 +10.761 25 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 2:09.465 2:06.219 +11.888
Race Pos No Driver Constructor Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 5 Nigel Mansell Williams-Honda 43 1:27:57.925 5 9 2 12 Ayrton Senna Lotus-Renault 43 + 19.827 4 6 3 28 Stefan Johansson Ferrari 43 + 23.592 11 4 4 27 Michele Alboreto Ferrari 43 + 29.634 9 3 5 26 Jacques Laffite Ligier-Renault 43 + 1:10.690 17 2 6 1 Alain Prost McLaren-TAG 43 + 2:17.772 3 1 7 19 Teo Fabi Benetton-BMW 42 + 1 Lap 6 8 7 Riccardo Patrese Brabham-BMW 42 + 1 Lap 15 9 17 Marc Surer Arrows-BMW 41 + 2 Laps 21 10 20 Gerhard Berger Benetton-BMW 41 + 2 Laps 2 11 15 Alan Jones Lola-Ford 40 Out of Fuel 16 12 4 Philippe Streiff Tyrrell-Renault 40 + 3 Laps 18 13 14 Jonathan Palmer Zakspeed 37 + 6 Laps 20 23 Andrea de Cesaris Minardi-Motori Moderni 35 Out of Fuel 19 29 Huub Rothengatter Zakspeed 25 Electrical 23 3 Martin Brundle Tyrrell-Renault 25 Gearbox 12 24 Alessandro Nannini Minardi-Motori Moderni 24 Gearbox 22 25 René Arnoux Ligier-Renault 23 Engine 7 6 Nelson Piquet Williams-Honda 16 Turbo 1 18 Thierry Boutsen Arrows-BMW 7 Electrical 14 11 Johnny Dumfries Lotus-Renault 7 Spun Off 13 2 Keke Rosberg McLaren-TAG 6 Engine 8 21 Piercarlo Ghinzani Osella-Alfa Romeo 3 Engine 24 22 Christian Danner Osella-Alfa Romeo 2 Engine 25 16 Patrick Tambay Lola-Ford 0 Accident 10
Championship standings after the race
Drivers' Championship standings PosDriverPoints 1 Ayrton Senna 25 2 Alain Prost 23 3 Nigel Mansell 18 4 Nelson Piquet 15 5 Keke Rosberg 11Source:
Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 McLaren-TAG34 2 Williams-Honda33 3 Lotus-Renault25 4 Ligier-Renault12 5 Ferrari10Source:
References